Mobile payment applications, such as Apple's Passbook®, allow users to store gift cards, generic cards and other forms of mobile payment. Each card or form of mobile payment may be known as a “pass” or a “payment token.” Each pass may consist of a collection of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files and images.
Currently, passes are treated as a separate entity that are hosted by the mobile payment application, separate from other applications, including the business application that may have generated the card (e.g., gift card) used to create the pass. For example, Starbucks® has a mobile application that allows the user to create gift cards, select favorite store locations as well as monitor and track rewards. When a gift card is created, a pass (e.g., Starbucks® pass) corresponding to the gift needs to be created in order for the mobile payment application to use the gift card. In another example, when the user selects a favorite store location in Starbucks® application, the mobile payment application does not inherit these preferences until the mobile payment application is accessed thereby allowing such preferences to be inherited by the Starbucks® pass. As a result, there is a period of time in which the mobile payment application does not have access to the user's preferences or mobile payments which may result in an undesired user experience.
Hence, there is currently not a means for seamlessly integrating the features of passes with existing mobile applications.
Furthermore, the passes that are currently stored by the mobile payment application may not be entirely secure. For example, the stored passes may not be encrypted or stored in a secure location within the mobile device. Neither does the mobile payment application extend such security when the data is referenced outside of the mobile payment application. For example, transactions directly involving the pass may not be entirely secure. For instance, the gift card number of the pass may be represented by a bar code or Quick Response code that is not securely encrypted thereby allowing others to obtain the gift card number.
As a result, the features of passes are not seamlessly integrated with other existing mobile applications while preventing security exposures.